Review of National Best Practices: Redesigning

Community Colleges For Completion

Jim JacobsMacomb Community College

Colorado Community College SummitOctober 24, 2011

Part One

Why Is This Important: The National Context

The Community College Paradox

Never before have community colleges enjoyed such an important role as major institutions in American post-secondary education

Never before have community colleges been called up to deal with major American problems of competitiveness and economic security

Never before have community colleges been held accountable to the success of students who are often the hardest to serve

White House SummitOctober 5, 2010

Specific recognition of community colleges as important national institutions

Indicates the importance of community colleges in many parts of American society

Reflects the increasing role of foundations and private support of community colleges in advocating change

Reaffirms the mission of the community college as important to national economic future

Community Colleges Have New Supporters

Community colleges are viewed as fundamental to the solution of major problems of America

Increasing federal initiatives to promote the community college

Foundations are interested in supporting student success initiatives

Foundations Provide Leadership Foundations are interested in supporting student

success initiatives

Current Foundation initiatives to support community colleges student success: Achieving the Dream

Breaking Through

Complete College America

Completion by Design

Getting Past Go

Shifting Gears

What is Achieving the Dream?

Multi-year national initiative More than 100 institutions, in 22 states, serving 1 million

students

Goal: Incremental improvement within, not compared to other institutions

Active involvement of faculty, staff and administrators as well as others within college community

Focus: Institution-wide commitment to student success Special focus on students of color and low-income students Success = 5 specific goals

Achieving the Dream Goals

Successful completion of remedial developmental instruction and advance to credit–bearing courses

Successful completion of initial college-level courses in subjects such as English and Math

Complete courses taken with a C or better

Term-to-term persistence

Completion of a certificate or associate’s degree

Breaking Through Initiative

Multi-year national initiative 32 colleges in 18 states

Two State-level networks of colleges Michigan - connects dislocated workers to postsecondary

education North Carolina - connects out-of-school youth to GED’s and

college

Goal: Strengthen the efforts of Community Colleges in helping low-literacy adults prepare for and succeed in occupational and technical degree programs

Focus: Concentrate on strategies that create more effective pathways through pre-college and degree-level programs

The Breaking Through Model

Four main strategies:

Reorganize and Realign Colleges

Accelerate Learning

Assure an Economic Payoff

Provide Comprehensive Support

Part II

Redesigning For Completion: What Have We Learned?

Various Student Success Strategies

Placement testing Developmental acceleration Contextualization & innovative math pedagogy Non-academic support Program and instructional structure Online learning Organizational improvement (establishment in

programs of study)

An overarching theme When evaluated, these reforms generally have positive

but modest effects: Difficult to bring to scale Not large enough to effect institutional performance

To substantially improve: developmental education online & face-to-face pedagogy support provision

. . . the whole institution needs to be engaged and focused on improving student outcomes

Completion By Design Areas of Opportunity

#1: Complexity & Structure #2: Faculty Engagement #3: Academic Alignment & Assessment #4: Continuous Improvement

Complexity & Structure

People make bad choices in unduly complex environments

College can seem complex and confusing to students, due to: A bewildering array of options Unnecessary bureaucracy

Many students fail to get established in a program and are confused about requirements and prerequisites

Complexity & Structure

Recommendation: Simplify the structures and bureaucracies that students must navigate

Align developmental material, placement tests, & college-level curriculum

Streamline & contextualize developmental education with student’s program of choice (requires program-choice advisement)

Allow fast-track options

Faculty Engagement

Substantial organizational improvement requires strong employee involvement

In community colleges, student success goals can be hampered by: lack of faculty/staff engagement large part-time workforce organizational silos

Faculty Engagement

Organizations with strong employee involvement in reform: Ensure employees have deep understanding of goals

and methods of reform Empower employees as part of reform Encourage staff to work in cross-functional teams Create challenging yet meaningful goals Present evidence of successes

Alignment and Assessment

In K-12, schools effective with disadvantaged students have “instructional program coherence:” Well-coordinated, “rationalized” curriculum Common instructional framework Clearly defined learning outcomes Integrated assessments & academic supports

Colleges do not put strong emphasis on these

Academic Alignment and Assessment

Recommendation: Faculty work together to craft learning outcomes. Process would: Help faculty from different disciplines communicate

and align expectations for reading, writing & math Help part-time instructors understand course goals Help students understand program goals &

requirements Help clarify college readiness standards

Continuous Improvement

Practices of high-performance organizations: Strong leadership Customer focus Functional alignment Process improvement Use of measurement for improvement Employee involvement Training and professional development External linkages

Continuous Improvement

Recommendations: Involve faculty & mid-level administrators in

measuring outcomes, setting goals, identifying gaps, and making changes

To support process, re-think committee structures, professional development strategies, and incentives

Empower Faculty and Staff to Design/Implement Innovations at Scale

CONNECTIONFrom interest to enrollment

ENTRYFrom enrollment to entry into

program of study

PROGRESSFrom program entry to 75% of

program requirements completed

COMPLETIONFrom program completion to credential of value for further education and (for CTE) labor

market advancement

College readiness prep for hs students

Early testingStrategic dual enrollment“Bridges” from ABE to collegeRecruitment materials with

program streams clearly mapped out

Program offerings / requirements clearly mapped out

Consistent messages to new students

Prescribed course sequence with required 3-credit college success course

Dev ed contextualized to program streams

Course learning outcomes/assessments tied to program outcomes

Students required to declare major

Students required to keep up-to-date program completion plan

Revamped program review process to ensure that programs prepare for further education and career advancement

Transfer agreements with universities that ensure junior standing

Regular review of program learning outcomes by employers

Survey of recent grads for suggestion of way to improve programs

Continuous Improvement

What is the capability of the college to answer these questions?

To what extent do faculty and administrators use data and information to guide their activities?

What is the strategy for professional development and what goals or principles guide that strategy?

Can you tell if efforts or reforms have been successful?

Conclusion

A completion agenda is more than process—content and goals, such as obtaining careers, matter

It does take effort and organizational resources on an institutional scale

Leadership and vision must guide the efforts

Questions

jacobsj@macomb.edu